


30 Days

by Faeryam



Category: Beauty and the Beast (2017), Beauty and the Beast - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Fluff, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-01
Updated: 2017-06-30
Packaged: 2018-11-09 06:43:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 30
Words: 10,227
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11099043
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Faeryam/pseuds/Faeryam
Summary: This is my contribution to the Beauty and the Beast Fanfiction/Fanart Celebration, which is being run by TheStanfouBrew and RemusLupinSmiled on Tumblr. Many thanks to them for having the idea and for coming up with the prompts.Adam/Belle - 2, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13-15, 17, 20, 21, 25-29Lumiere/Plumette - 4, 12, 18Maurice and Belle - 6, 22, 24Cadenza/Garderobe - 8, 19Cogsworth/general - 1, 10Adam - 16, 23, 30





	1. Morning/Mourning

The morning after Cogsworth passes away is the strangest day the castle has faced since the curse.

When the curse ended, the inhabitants of the castle felt as if they had been reborn. And in a sense, they quite literally had been. All of their thoughts were centered on hope and the future. They thought of what their lives might bring.

They had been aware of Cogsworth’s advanced age, of course. Most of the curse’s victims had been working at the castle for years, and some had been part of the household for decades. However, there was a sobering adjustment period after the curse as they realized that they had exchanged one time limit for another. After years of thinking of Cogsworth as an unchanging piece of wood, a keeper of time rather than a part of it himself, it was harder to accept his mortality.

Nearly three years to the day since the end of the curse, the eldest of its former victims falls still for a much more natural reason.  

The beloved majordomo has been at the castle longer than any of its other residents or workers, and everyone is painfully aware that they have lost a part of their history. They ponder what will happen when the last of the formerly cursed group takes a final breath. Will their story live on? Will it be thought of only as a legend? Will anyone even know what occurred when a beggar woman appeared out of a storm?

While most of the castle bustles about in a semi-normal morning routine out of necessity, one tower of the castle is still quiet.

Adam rises before his wife. He leaves their bed and walks silently into the adjoining room to check on their infant daughter. When he looks down at her, he realizes that she will have no memory of her godfather.

The mourning after Cogsworth passes away is the strangest day the castle has faced since the curse.


	2. Jealousy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adam supposes this is what the rest of his life will be: he will always either be touching Belle or wishing he was.

It’s silly of him, Adam thinks, but he is secretly grateful that he was the first of the castle’s inhabitants to touch Belle with human flesh. It could have so easily turned out otherwise. After all, it was only through tragedy that she happened to be right there at his side at the end of it all. The curse could have broken at any old time. Adam holds back a chuckle as he imagines Belle sitting in the library reading her damned favorite play in the middle of the night and suddenly realizing her feelings. Perhaps they would have transformed in their sleep. Belle might have emerged from the library in the early hours of the morning and wondered how it was suddenly summer outside. Or what if the thought had come to her during her conversation with her father in the village? Would her moment of enlightenment have broken the curse from afar? How long would he have had to wait to hold her?

Adam has been swept up in a sea of people who wish to hug him, speak to him, or even just ogle him (how amazing it is to feel self-conscious of his bedraggled clothing without hating the body beneath it). It feels like hours since he has been within an arm’s reach of Belle, though it has probably been only minutes.

Though he is not nearly as tall as he was in his other form, he is still taller than most of the household staff and the villagers, and he can see Belle clearly. He supposes he must be imagining it, but he thinks that her freckles are already showing more in the sunshine. She still hasn’t stopped smiling, but as radiant as her face is, he is having trouble keeping his eyes away from her other bare skin. The same amount had been showing during their dance the night before, but it seems different when she’s in only her undergarments. Adam had blushed in the tower when they had finally broken apart from their kiss and he had comprehended what she was wearing. He had pulled his hands away from her waist as if he had been burned, and she had laughed.

And of course, there’s the fact that he can touch her now without endangering her or disgusting himself with the sight of his claws next to her flawlessness. Her bare skin holds possibilities now, rather than despair over what he thought could never be.

He sees other hands passing over this skin. Chip clutches her hand. Mrs. Potts fusses over a small scrape that she finds on Belle’s arm. Plumette combs her fingers through Belle’s hair in an attempt to make it presentable for their audience. Adam feels himself blushing again when he hears Plumette call her “la Princesse!” Possibilities, indeed.

He wants to feel her body under his fingertips again. Adam supposes this is what the rest of his life will be: he will always either be touching Belle or wishing he was.

An aging businessman from the village comes up behind him and initiates an enthusiastic conversation about the local economy. Adam regrets that he is forced to turn away from the sight of his beloved. As the businessman talks excitedly, Adam is suddenly overwhelmed with facts and figures that he hasn’t had to think about in years. Just when he thinks that he will have to rudely excuse himself and add more damage to his relationship with the village, he feels a small, smooth hand slip into his. The soft squeeze of Belle’s fingers overwhelms him in an entirely different and much more comfortable way, and he feels at ease.


	3. Midnight

Several weeks after the end of the curse, Belle lies in bed trying to get to sleep.

Despite it being summer, the nights can get quite cold, especially in the stone castle. The chill is keeping her awake, and she finds herself wondering what it would be like to snuggle up with Adam the way she had sometimes in the library during the curse.

When he was in that form, there was no sense of impropriety if they spent half the night alone together in the library, or if she fell asleep against his side on a sofa. Additionally, everyone’s lives had depended on them falling in love quickly, and they were enthralled to see their Master happy for the first time in years, so there had been no pressure from anyone to behave a certain way. Belle was grateful for this for another reason. No one had acknowledged their juxtaposition as Prince and peasant. They had simply seen the man they cared about and a woman who could be their savior. 

Now he is human on the outside as well as the inside, and the castle is no longer cut off from the outside world. Social norms and expectations have come crashing down on them. There are certain times and places when it is expected that they will be apart, and Adam has quietly joked to her that part of him wishes for another day of the curse.

They suppose that things will relax eventually, and they will learn which rules can be broken without consequence. But for now, with many of the villagers still apprehensive about Belle and the formerly cursed castle residents, and the important visitors who are being invited to visit nearly every week, they are being cautious.

Belle is sure she could make it to the West Wing without being spotted, and she has considered doing so nearly every night. So far, she hasn’t followed through. She does, however, explore other parts of the castle. Much of it is the same as before, but the end of the curse brought changes, and she enjoys discovering them.

Giving up on sleep for the time being, Belle leaves her bed with a sigh. She wraps her new ridiculously-luxurious dressing gown around herself, rolling her eyes though there is no one to see her disapproval, and heads to the place where she last left off exploring.

After a while, her stomach begins to growl, and she decides to head to the kitchens for a midnight snack.

When she pushes the heavy kitchen door closed behind her and turns around to face the dim room, she nearly shrieks. Then her eyes adjust, and she realizes that the person sitting at the table is none other than Adam.

He seems surprised to see her, but his expression is quickly replaced with a mischievous smile. He reaches out an arm towards her.  


	4. Bath

After the curse, some of the maids had gone with their families back to the village, or had followed the villagers back so that they could find their other friends and family.

Plumette has no family of that sort. Her family is the castle staff with whom she was isolated for years. And so, just a couple of days later, she is already back to flitting around the castle and cleaning, not so unlike the way she had during the curse. She touches the floor now, of course, but only slightly.

Unbeknownst to her, Lumière has been keeping tabs on her, not wanting to be too far away from his love after thinking that he had lost her forever. As he watches her work, he tries to think of something that he could do for her. A way to help her relax.

Their lives are so different now. The Master had never been _cruel_ to them, per se, but his temper and selfishness had caused them to walk on eggshells nonetheless. The servants had all worked harder than they needed to, and they lived simple lives with little time for rest. Now, everything has changed. There is still a social order, but there is also freedom and peace of mind. Lumière decides to take advantage of this to give his darling Plumette a surprise.

Near the end of the day, Lumière finds an extra bathtub and drags it into his room in the servants’ quarters. He surveys the room with a finger on his chin and tries to think of how he can make this night special.

“Aha!” With a dramatic twirl, he turns out of the room and runs off to the ballroom, where bouquets of flowers have already been brought in. He steals one lovely pink blossom and scurries back to his quarters.

Grateful that he has one of the nicer rooms and his own fireplace, he heats water in a pot and draws a bath. When he has filled the tub enough, he plucks the petals of the flower and scatters them over the surface of the water, as well as on his bed.  

Lumière goes looking for Plumette and finds her in the gallery. She is humming and swaying while she dusts the furniture, and he takes a minute to simply watch her. He is so distracted by her beauty and charm that he almost forgets her bath is growing cold, but then he remembers his mission. He comes up behind her and wraps an arm around her so that he can carefully lower her into a dip. Plumette gasps in surprise, but then she smiles up at him. He places his hand on her face and softly kisses her.


	5. Leather

Belle runs the strip of leather across her open palm.

She had run into Plumette, who just so happened to be carrying Adam’s laundry to the West Wing. Belle insisted on taking it up there herself. Any excuse to be waiting in his tower when he finishes his work for the day.

When Belle opened a drawer to put the clothing away, the belt had been sitting innocuously upon a ragged shirt. It isn’t part of his normal ensembles, but she recognizes it as the belt that he sometimes wears with a cheaply-cut pair of trousers when they spend an afternoon in the garden together. The closest thing to peasant clothing that he owns.

Belle supposes she should be abashed at the thoughts that are running through her mind as she feels the weight and texture of the leather against her skin. After all, Adam won’t even be her husband for a good few months, and at her own insistence! Any intimate activities beyond the established norm are even further off.

In all honesty, she isn’t even entirely sure of the nature of her desires when she holds the belt. The castle’s library has certainly broadened her literary horizons, especially with a few scandalous recommendations from Plumette. She has ideas in her mind, but they aren’t entirely formed. Illicit passages and illustrations fly through her mind, and her imagination runs wild. She smiles to herself as she realizes that her uncertainty isn’t a problem. She and Adam will have all the time in the world to figure it out.


	6. First

The first time someone asks Maurice what happened to his wife, his throat closes up. He wishes that a man could barter for milk while carrying a baby without receiving so many looks of pity.

The first time Belle asks about her mother, she is two years old. She is surprisingly verbal and inquisitive for a child so young, and she has picked up on the fact that most children have a female parent. His chest only hurts for a few moments, and then he explains it to her as briefly as possible.

The first time Maurice offers Belle information about her mother without being prompted, Belle is twelve years old. They are watching the stars, and suddenly a memory is bubbling up inside him. The words come pouring out of his mouth before he can think to stop them. It doesn’t hurt quite so much anymore. That is, until he looks at Belle and sees her face. She looks startled and wary of his speech, as if she had learned not to expect it and doesn’t want to show how much she craves the stories, lest she get her hopes up that there will be more. He is overcome with guilt.

As Belle matures into a woman, Maurice tries to talk about her mother as much as possible. To his dismay, he finds that he can only handle so much. To make up the difference, he communicates through his art.

The first time he shows Belle the portrait he has made of her and her mother, she cries and hugs him.


	7. Bright

His first thought when he gains consciousness is that everything is so _bright._

He hopes he is in Heaven. He hasn’t given it much thought since shortly after his mother died. He’s not even sure if he believes in any of that anymore.

He doesn’t care so much where he is going for his own sake, but if Heaven exists, he knows that is where Belle will end up. Even though she doesn’t love him, she clearly cares enough about him to have come back. She accepted his company. If Heaven is where he is sent, he will get to see her again, hopefully many decades down the road. Then, perhaps, he will have a chance to explain everything, and time to make up for the sorrow he caused her.  

Suddenly, his feet touch a hard surface, and the light dissipates.

He quickly realizes where he is and that he has been returned to his human form. As impossible as it seems, he knows what has happened. He turns around. The comfort and hope of the brightness that surrounded him a few moments ago is nothing compared to the sight of Belle standing before him now.


	8. Hands

When Madame de Garderobe finally accepts Maestro Cadenza’s proposal of courtship, it is against her better judgment. She is sure that all men treat their wives the same way behind closed doors: the way that her father treated her mother, and the way that her late husband treated her.

The Maestro is unfailingly patient. They talk. They eat. They walk.

He longs to touch her, to show her the depth of his affection rather than just tell her. She allows him simple, innocent touches, but her eyes always stay trained on his hands. He knows that she is waiting for the other shoe to drop.

He worries about making a mistake. He knows he will never hurt her, but he is afraid that he will startle her and scare her away forever. He is afraid that he isn’t worth the risk.

She is sitting in the small parlor of his humble suite one day when his hands become restless. He desperately looks for something to do with them besides hold her, and he decides on the obvious solution.

Madame has heard him perform many times, of course, but he usually refrains from playing when they are alone, preferring to give her all of his attention.

He asks her if she would like him to play, and she nods with a soft smile. It isn’t long before he is lost in the music, allowing himself to imagine that his fingers are playing over her beautiful form instead of the keys. He doesn’t notice when she gets up and comes to stand behind him, but he feels it when she rests her hands on his shoulders.


	9. Smile

As he begins to court Belle, Adam is terrified that he will somehow prove to be as flawed a partner as his father was. He has never seriously courted anyone before, and he doesn’t know what sort of suitor or lover he will be. Everything he was before has been razed. He is building himself from the ground up.

Belle’s smile is what lets Adam know that he has learned from his father’s mistakes, and from his own.

His mother never looked at his father that way. It wasn’t so clear to Adam at the time, but in hindsight, as he runs through his childhood memories with the eyes of an adult, it is obvious that his mother was miserable. Her smile could hardly be called such. It was tight, reserved, and fleeting.

One day, he is recalling a particularly troubling memory when Belle walks into the room. He looks up at her, and it is clear that she is filled with joy just at the sight of him. Her smile is genuine and unafraid. The contrast between his mother’s anxious face in his mind’s eye and Belle’s expression brings tears to his eyes.


	10. Sand

A month after the end of the curse, Cogsworth decides to take a long-awaited vacation to the coast.

He makes the mistake of mentioning this plan to Lumière at breakfast. By the end of the day, the idea has spread, and the Prince and Belle have decided to take most of the household on a much-deserved trip.

Cogsworth huffs and grumbles, though he is secretly fine with the unexpected company. He had planned on immediately retiring to the seaside if the curse broke, but it had only taken him a couple of days to realize that he liked his work and the castle residents far too much to leave.

The day comes, and nearly all of the castle’s carriages and wagons are put to use for the journey. The coast is near enough that they reach it just after nightfall. The Prince and Belle break off to reserve rooms at an inn along with some members of the staff, but they soon rejoin the group for a bonfire put on by those who prefer to camp on the beach.

There is food and drink, but more importantly, happiness and friendship. Chip has never been to the coast before, and they laugh until there are tears in their eyes as they watch him tumble around in the sand. At one point, Lumière picks up Plumette, carries her to the water, and dumps her in. Even Frou-Frou has joined them for the trip, and there is another round of laughter when he shakes sand all over them.

Cogsworth is silent for the most part, though he watches his friends with a smile. The trip brings back all of the good parts of the curse without the bad.


	11. Rejection

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The word feels like a knife to the heart. Rejection. As if a choice had been made.

Rejection.

That’s the word the physician uses to describe what went wrong.

He says he doesn’t have an explanation beyond that. No one does. Sometimes, there is a known problem. The woman is frail, or she falls, or she becomes ill. But none of these diagnoses applies to Belle. Her body simply rejected the pregnancy. There is no apparent cause of their loss. Somehow, that makes it worse. There is nothing they could have done to prevent this, and nothing they can do to keep it from happening again. When a maid walks in carrying their baby, the physician looks at her with a tight smile as if he suspects she will be their only one.

Adam knows he can’t blame the man for using the assigned medical term when answering their questions, but the word feels like a knife to the heart. _Rejection._ As if a choice had been made. As if they hadn’t wanted this child.

Belle and Adam’s love was built on the belief that they could break free of the limits of their bodies and appearance. His curse. Her gender. Their stubbornness and their spirit became a magic that could break down barriers, bring joy, and even defy death. Now, they must contend with the fact that they are still at the mercy of their flesh.


	12. Dreams

At the beginning of the curse, the residents of the castle have countless questions. The Enchantress doesn’t seem to care. She stays only briefly to explain the terms of the spell. After leaving the rose and the book with the Prince, she is on her way.

While the Master is hiding in the West Wing, too ashamed and guilt-ridden to show himself to them again, the castle staff tries to figure out their new lives. Do they need food or water? Can they get injured?

There is a moment of panic among them when young Chip becomes unresponsive. He wakes up, startled by the noise, and they realize he was only sleeping. After several more hours of discussing their living nightmare and trying to calm each other down, exhaustion forces the rest of the staff to follow suit.

Lumière and Plumette find a quiet corner and lie down next to each other. It takes Lumière a while to doze off, but then he dreams of the night before. He thinks it is just his memory playing in his head, but as the scene continues, he notices that the curves of Plumette's body are a bit different than what he was expecting.

He wakes with a start. Plumette is still sleeping soundly next to him, as best as he can tell. He closes his eyes, if they can be called that, and thinks back over their recent nights spent together. Had her body really showed those changes? Had he somehow not noticed, perhaps because the change was so gradual? Or is his mind simply set on making the curse as miserable as possible by taunting him with things that can never be?

Lumière is usually a ray of hope and light to everyone around him, but he feels his soul deflate as he realizes it doesn’t matter now what he saw.


	13. Dessert

The first time Adam suspects that the Enchantress may be trying to help him break the curse is one night at dinner when Belle snatches a second handful of dragées. She shoots him a sheepish look, but she doesn’t seem afraid or reserved.  

Perhaps it should have occurred to him when the old man’s beautiful daughter came charging in. Maybe his suspicions should have been raised when said daughter quickly joined the short list of people who had ever challenged him, or when she volunteered to stay.

As it was, he hadn’t thought anything of that night’s strange events. Adam had never possessed any hope that the curse would ever be broken. He considered it to be nothing but a cruel joke.

After his first successful meal with Belle, during which a tray of desserts had been served, he had finally asked Lumière where the food came from. For years now, the staff had continued to serve him his meals as they had before the curse, but he had never cared to know how they managed to do it. Now that dessert apparently had been added to the menu, he was curious. 

“Where would we get something like chocolate mousse or fruit preserves, Master? It is too cold outside to grow any crops, and there is not one of us who could go into town to buy anything,” Lumière had said. "We still have wine in the cellar, but our stock of food ran out long ago."

He went on to explain that the ingredients simply...appear.

Now Adam watches as Belle samples every single delicacy on the dessert platter. In addition to her happiness over the confections, she is more talkative as a result of the sugar (and the wine, Adam thinks, aiming a glare at Lumière). She tells Adam how they don’t have most of these sweets in the village. She chats happily about how she remembers trying some of them when her father had to travel to sell his art and she was too young to be left alone at home.

Adam doesn’t realize he is smiling at her warmly until she suddenly stops talking and gives him a strange look. His face falls, and he looks away. For the first time, he is grateful for his fur, because it keeps him from blushing like a foolish schoolboy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dragées are little candies with hard outer shells. In the 18th century, they were usually nuts or caraway seeds coated in sugar.


	14. Blanket

A few weeks after the end of the curse, Adam notices that Belle has suddenly stopped letting him into her room between the time when she goes to bed each night until she meets him at breakfast. On the occasion that they have a secret midnight rendezvous, she insists on going to the West Wing, the library, the kitchen...frankly, anywhere but her own room. In the mornings, Belle’s door is shut, and even when a maid has told him that she is awake, she doesn’t answer his knocks anymore.

To his own surprise, Adam is very accepting of this. He knows that his old self would be angry at the unexplained changes and the rejection, or worse, become controlling of Belle in response. Now, however, he is simply grateful for the time that she does allow him to spend with her, and it makes him happy to see how comfortable she is around him. He wouldn’t do anything to make her doubt his respect for her.

Another week later, Adam has nearly forgotten about the whole matter. That is, until one morning when he happens to be walking past Belle’s door at the exact moment that a maid is leaving. She has the door propped wide open as she brings out Belle’s laundry.

Adam’s eyes automatically look towards the movement, and his jaw drops. Belle’s bed has been stripped bare by the maid, except for one item.

A fur blanket.

There had only been two in the entire castle before the curse. Neither had ever belonged to his mother, so during the enchantment he burned both of them in one of his first fits of rage. He couldn’t bear to see the resemblance.

Adam is sure there were none left. He is also sure that Belle did not own anything of the sort when she brought her possessions to the castle after the curse, which can only mean one thing. She has purchased this since then. But that doesn’t make sense. It’s still summer...

It takes both his brain and his body only about two seconds to process that information and start running wild with it.

A wave of lust courses through him as he ponders her only logical motivation for the purchase, and to his horror, he groans out loud. Belle comes into view from somewhere behind the door, still in her nightclothes, and looks at him with concern.

A moment later, her eyes widen in horror as she realizes what Adam is looking at.

He didn’t know that Belle’s face could turn so red. Her hands fly to her cheeks in an adorably flustered gesture that he doesn’t think he’s seen from her before. It only increases his desire.

Adam’s mind tells him that he should comfort her and ease her embarrassment. Certain other parts of his anatomy are also telling him to move closer to her, though for a very different reason. At least they’re in agreement about which direction his feet should take him, or he fears he would topple over.

He has just enough presence of mind to close the door behind him as he steps into the bedroom.


	15. Tears

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> She rarely cries. She has trained herself not to. Nearly any other demonstration of emotion is safer.

At first, Belle is determined not to let her captor see her cry.

It shouldn’t be too difficult, Belle thinks. She rarely cries. She has trained herself not to. Nearly any other demonstration of emotion is safer, so she has learned to control her reactions. Then again, she has never been forcibly separated from her father and made to believe that she will never see him again. She has never before been kept prisoner by a monster in a dark castle.

_Why oh why had she begged the universe for adventure._

The best way she knows to keep herself from crying is to be angry instead, so that is the course of action she takes. She is satisfied with her choice until she finds herself running away through a wolf-infested forest.

Later, as she tends to the wounds of the person who saved her life, there is no room left for real anger. They bicker over who is to blame, but the fire of hatred is gone.

Still, she is guarded. When he brings her into a room that contains more books than she knew existed, she channels her overwhelming emotions into excitement.

Montmartre is a turning point. Belle sheds a few tears as she kneels next to her old crib. She tells herself that it is too dark in the attic for him to notice, but she finds that she doesn’t actually mind if he knows. He is being so sweet, so gentle. He has asked nothing of her since that first night, and now he has allowed her to take them wherever her heart desires. She realizes that he is voluntarily giving up his control of her.

Days later, as he lies on the floor dying in front of her, she doesn’t try to stop her tears.


	16. Memory

As Adam gets used to being in his human form again, he finds that he is much more skittish than before. Loud noises, shouts, and any other sign of danger can cause him to flinch. It isn’t usually a panicked reaction (unless gunshots are involved). It’s just that he’s used to being several feet taller, with fangs and claws. For years, there hadn’t been anything or anyone within the castle’s gates that could harm him.

He can tell that Belle is concerned. She places a hand on him whenever he is startled. Her brow furrows, but she never asks him about it. She probably thinks that he was the same way before the curse.

Adam wants to ease her worry and explain that he’s adjusting, but he’s worried that it’s not just temporary. What if he never fully recovers? He doesn’t know what to tell her.

He could lie and say that this is nothing new. It would be all too easy to claim that his father physically abused him and left him permanently anxious. Belle has probably assumed as much already. That explanation would make the most sense.

As Adam contemplates that option, he allows himself to think back on those years. He decides to test the waters and see how those memories feel, now that Belle has lifted him out of the cloud of despair and self-hatred that plagued him for so long.

In truth, there isn’t much to go over. There is a bitter part of him that thinks abuse would have been better. The reality of the situation was that his father hadn’t cared enough about him to waste any energy on him, for better or for worse. He had hired the best care, of course, and then the best tutors, but direct contact between father and son had been extremely limited. Adam knows that his father was very interested in the progress of his education, but it’s clear to him now that his father’s motivations were self-serving.

He supposes that he will have to deal with the memories at some point. He has a future now, and he is trying to be a better man. A man whose actions aren’t guided by pain, insecurities, and unresolved anger. But somehow, the path to healing doesn’t seem so treacherous now.


	17. Passion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He knew from the moment they first glared at each other that Belle was a passionate person. Anyone who has met her knows that. He just hadn’t imagined that she would ever feel passion for him.

Adam is going over paperwork with Cogsworth when he hears the carriage pull up.

He peeks at the majordomo out of the corner of his eye, trying to ascertain how poorly he will be judged if he sprints from the room like a child on Christmas morning.

Cogsworth doesn’t seem to have heard the noise, as his hearing isn’t what it used to be. Adam wills himself to remain in his seat. Belle has only been gone for a week, after all. He knows that she doesn’t have many belongings, and there are plenty of people around to help her. She’s probably tired, anyway. She’ll want to lie down...

None of these thoughts make him any less eager to see her. If Belle had known exactly what day she would be back, he probably would have spent that entire day sitting on the front step.

Adam squirms, and Cogsworth raises an eyebrow. Suddenly, there’s an excited commotion in the hallway, and understanding dawns on the older man’s face.

“Ah,” he sighs with an uncharacteristic chuckle. The prince still doesn’t move.

 “Well? Go on, then.”  

Adam makes his way to the front doors as quickly as he can without losing all of his dignity. He finds Belle in the front foyer, being smothered by Mrs. Potts.

He stops on the staircase to give them a moment. When his eyes fall on Belle’s bags, he is overcome with unexpected emotion. Seeing her move into the castle voluntarily and permanently is more than he ever could have hoped for, and much more than he deserves.

She had called the castle “home” even back when they had visited the attic in Paris, but now it truly would be so for her.

Adam approaches the spontaneous welcoming party and insists on being the one to help Belle carry her belongings to her room. She agrees, and once the others have cleared the room, she shoots him a mischievous grin that makes him gulp.

He isn’t at all surprised when she throws the bags unceremoniously onto her bedroom floor, slams the door behind them, and pushes him up against it.

Adam knows that this is all knew for her, but it would be dishonest to say they’ve been moving slowly. He knew from the moment they first glared at each other that Belle was a passionate person. Anyone who has met her knows that. He just hadn’t imagined that she would ever feel passion for _him._ Her obvious desire for him and him alone makes him weak in the knees.

Adam reverses their positions, pushing Belle against the door instead, and spends the next quarter hour artfully demonstrating his own passions.


	18. Fruit

When Lumière is a young man and has been working at the castle for several years, a band of Portuguese ships raid some of the coastal villages. These marauders quickly become emboldened by their success, and their mission turns into an attempt to acquire territory and labor.

While the conflict is underway, it does not have much of an effect on the household. The Prince is ailing, and he has little interest in such matters. His son is not any different. The principality promises a certain number of soldiers to the cause, and that is the extent of their involvement.

The end of the conflict, however, is a different story. When the dust clears at the battlefront, there are orphans, young prisoners, and child soldiers. While it is not uncommon in the cities to see children living on the streets, there are simply too many for them to be left to their own devices. An informal system is set up. As the soldiers return to their homes across the province, they bring children with them who have not been claimed.

The castle takes in a handful of those who are brought to Villeneuve by the local troops.

One of their new charges is a beautiful young girl. At first glance, Lumière guesses that she is perhaps 10 years old. The first time he is near her and sees her face, though, he realizes that she must be several years older. He sometimes forgets that the coastal cities do not provide as easy a life or as plentiful a table as their own region.

The girl is understandably quiet and withdrawn, and it becomes somewhat of a game among the staff to try to cheer her up, or better yet, to get her to speak. They don’t even know her name. Lumière is more focused on their efforts to protect this vulnerable new member of their household from the aging Prince, but he finds himself pondering what might bring a smile to her lovely face.

When a delivery of produce arrives from the village, she is called on to help unload it into the kitchen. Lumière stops by to take stock, and he is around just long enough to see the young girl’s face light up in wonder at the variety of fresh fruits.

The next day is Sunday, and they are relieved of their duties for the better part of the day as usual so that they may attend mass in the village. This week, Lumière stays behind and works in the kitchen.

When the wagons return, he peers behind the window curtain and sees the girl hop off. Luckily, she is the only one who walks directly towards the kitchen doors.

When she enters the room and sees him there with no other company, she jumps and starts to leave.

“Wait!”

She freezes.

The last thing he wants is for her to feel cornered or to get the wrong idea. He is sure she has suffered more than enough of that already in her young life.

He sets the tray of fruit tarts he has made on a table. He raises his hands to show he means no harm, and he backs away to the far side of the room.

“They’re for you. I thought you might like them...”

He expects a small smile. Instead, her jaw drops, and she looks at him as if he has declared her Queen. Somehow, this reaction is even better.

He backs up further, moving towards the opposite door, and he nearly trips in surprise when she opens her mouth and speaks.

“Plumette.”


	19. Cat

After the curse ends, all the usual wildlife returns to the castle grounds. It isn’t long before Chip has somehow managed to find a stray barn cat.

Clutching the startled creature in his arms, he scurries into the castle and searches for someone who can tell him what cats like to eat.

The first person he runs into is Cadenza. The man chuckles and leads the young boy to the kitchen, where they find some leftover meat from lunch. As the cat ravages it, Cadenza chats with the boy about how to care for the animal, and Chip asks him how he knows so much about cats.

“Before little Frou-Frou, Madame and I had a cat that I purchased as a kitten. Years and years ago.”

There is so much more to the story than what he can tell the boy.

Technically, he and Madame hadn’t begun courting until after they had fallen in love. Given her traumatic experience with her first husband, who had since died, the lovely Madame de Garderobe had revealed to him that she did not plan on marrying again. It was only once she was so enamored with Cadenza that she couldn’t stand to be without him that she had agreed to a courtship.

Even then, she clearly thought she was making a mistake and had doomed herself once again.

Desperate to calm her fears, but not wanting to overwhelm her with affection while she was on edge, he had looked for another way to show her that he would never harm her.

Kittens playing in a shop window had provided him with his answer. From then on, whenever Madame visited his apartment and saw him caring for something so helpless, she had seemed much more at ease, and their relationship blossomed.


	20. Sick

Belle, who spent the first few months of her life in Paris and then migrated halfway across France, rarely gets sick anymore. She has been exposed to so much more illness than Villeneuve has to offer.

To her dismay, she comes down with something during the first winter after the curse. It isn’t serious enough to alarm anyone, but it leaves her bedridden for several days as she works through her fever.

Once it is clear that it’s nothing but a common sickness and that Belle will be fine, Adam feels a strange sense of glee at the prospect of taking care of her. There are so many things he doesn’t know how to do. So many things he was never _taught_ to do or expected to know. He often struggles to keep up with Belle’s combination of intelligence and practical knowledge. She is more independent and self-sufficient than nearly anyone he has ever met, and he feels as if he is unable to give her as much as she gives him.

But this he can do. He can take care of Belle when she is sick. He knows how to make tea, and he knows how to boil water and make broth. They’ve been together for half a year, so he has mastered the art of comforting and relaxing her. They are not yet married, but he has spent enough private moments with her that he knows how she likes her pillows arranged. He can tell when she wants to be held, and he can figure out when she’s in pain but is trying to hide it.

Belle was expecting him to be overly worried about her health, so she raises an eyebrow when she sees how giddy he is. She watches in amusement as he pulls up a chair and sits by her bedside, but she falls further in love when he insists on being the one to tend to her around the clock.

On the second day, he even reads to her from Romeo & Juliet. She laughs deliriously when she recognizes the words he is saying, and he tries not to laugh at her in return when her laughter turns into a coughing fit. Once she has recovered from the episode, she falls asleep to the sound of his voice.


	21. Dance

After several hours of reunions with castle staff and villagers in front of the castle, Adam notices that Belle is beginning to burn in the hot June sun.

It isn’t difficult to convince her to sneak off with him into the castle. But as his attention refocuses on Belle and her well-being, he also realizes that they’ve been up all night, and now it’s midday.

Before he can suggest to her that she get some sleep, she is dragging him by the hand further into the castle.

“Where are we going?” Just as when he handed her the enchanted book, she could take him anywhere she pleases and he wouldn’t complain. But he is still curious.

“We didn’t get to finish our ball!” She giggles like a child, and he finds it to be contagious.

Was it really just last night that they had danced together? He can scarcely believe it.

She stumbles a bit as they cross the threshold to the ballroom, and he realizes that she is nearly delirious from exhaustion at this point. Still, he knows there is nothing he can do to change her course of action once her mind is set, and he isn’t quite ready to let her out of his sight, anyway.

She drags him to the center of the ballroom and attempts to repeat their waltz from hours before. Logically, it should be worlds easier for him to perform in his human body, but he is just as tired as she is. With amusement, he focuses what little energy he has left on making sure she doesn’t fall over.

After a couple of minutes of what could hardly be called dancing, Belle leans against him for support and wraps her arms around his waist. Adam holds her close and presses kisses against every spot that he can reach. Belle closes her eyes, and they sway.    


	22. Routine

Maurice doesn’t know what his life would have looked like after the death of his wife if he didn’t have a daughter to take care of.

Since that day, his entire world has revolved around his Belle. Her needs are his reason to wake up, to make sure he takes care of himself, and to work.

She brings order to a world that has ceased to make sense to him, and she serves as a reminder that the world often gives as much as it takes. When she is a baby, her schedule creates his schedule. Every minute of every day has a purpose. Because of Belle, there is no time for him to wallow in his misery, and he is able to start healing properly.

As Belle grows, she continues to play the role of setting a routine for their lives. As free-spirited as she is, she is also naturally an organized and principled person, just like her mother. Where he is artistic and is prone to letting his emotions consume him, she has a presence of mind that grounds him.

If he were on his own, he knows that the rest of his life would seem like an infinite, unbearable challenge stretching out in front of him. Belle, with her endless fortitude and determination, ensures that he never falls into that trap.


	23. Lies

During the curse, Adam has too much time to think.

At some point, it occurs to him that there are many things wrong with the nature of the spell. The most obvious, of course, is that everyone else involved will die if he fails to break it in time. They certainly haven’t done anything worth a death sentence. Especially not poor Chip.

But there is something else that bothers him about the terms of the Enchantress’ arrangement. He can’t quite put his finger on it. This inkling sits in the back of Adam’s mind for several months before he realizes the problem: there is no moral or honest way for the curse to be broken. Someone would have to come to the castle and stay there long enough to fall in love with him. What sort of life would that be? Isolated from the world in a crumbling castle where it is perpetually winter? Why should his potential lover be punished along with him?  

And why would they stay in the first place? Who would stumble upon a dark, cursed castle ruled by a monster and decide to call it home? What lies would he have to tell to convince someone to stay?

He could force the person to stay. He supposes that imprisoning one innocent individual is justified if it saves dozens of other lives. As soon as this thought crosses his mind, however, he sees the catch. He must love and be loved in return. Imprisonment is not love, and surely it would be impossible for his innocent captive to grow to love him. He could trick the person and spin a web of lies the way he used to, but if that is what’s necessary, then what is the point of the curse?

How can true love be based on lies?


	24. Game

For a while, Villeneuve seems like a fine place to raise Belle. It’s a beautiful village surrounded by farmland and rolling hills, and it’s not on the road to any major centers of trade, so there is little chance of outbreaks reaching them.

It is only when Belle grows into a young girl that the problems start. Maurice is aware that the only formal school in the village is one for boys, but he had assumed that there would be some other sort of resource for the girls and for the boys whose parents cannot afford to send them. When he begins to ask around, he quickly learns that there is no such help to be found. No one is interested in educating a girl.

So he teaches her to read on his own. He makes sure that she learns to read and write Parisian French in addition to Villeneuve’s regional dialect. That will give her the chance to experience such a wider variety of literature and to see the world as a bigger place than their village believes it to be.

Of course, taking matters into his own hands doesn’t completely solve the problem. There are still the stares, the whispers, and the occasional harsh word.

Maurice worries for his daughter. The scorn that is aimed at them is not just distaste or disagreement. He can sense anger and fear boiling under the surface of their little village, especially as the years go by and Belle becomes a lovely girl with a witty tongue. However, he is unwilling to tell her that she must cave to everyone else’s wishes. That is not what he wants to teach her. That is no way to live. He refuses to tell her to leave her books at home or to stop trying to talk to the boys about what they’re learning in school.

As a compromise, Maurice comes up with a game. He challenges her to memorize her favorite quotes and passages so that they will always be with her.

Belle eagerly plays the game. Life is a bit more peaceful for them on the days when she leaves her books at home.

Maurice feels some guilt, but then something happens that he hadn’t quite expected. It isn’t long before memorization isn’t enough for Belle. A passage that takes a minute to recite sometimes turns into a dozen curious questions about life, love, history, and whatever else her young mind can think of. The game has caused her to go from being just a reader to being a thinker, an explorer, and a budding philosopher. She translates passages from one dialect to another, and she asks if there are other languages that a person can learn. She critiques what she reads, and she even comes up with her own versions of the stories that she reads. Maurice marvels at his daughter’s mind, and he wishes that their village would let it be more than just a game.


	25. Family

One day, several months into their marriage, Adam is reading in the library when Belle suddenly storms in and slams the door behind her.

Confident that her anger has to do with their aristocratic guests and not him, he sets his book to the side and opens his arms to her. She begins to pace in front of him instead, and he holds back a chuckle.

Belle is silent for a minute, and he waits patiently. Then she turns towards him abruptly.

“When you think of family, who do you picture?”

He blinks, wondering where this could be going.

“Well, you, of course. And my mother, and your father. And I suppose...most everyone else in our household.”

“Exactly!” She clenches her fists and starts pacing again.

“The Comtesse just asked me when we plan on starting a family. I didn’t take offense at that, because I knew what she meant, and there’s hardly another polite way of putting it. But when I said that we’re waiting a bit and that we’re content with our family here for now, she gave me that _look.”_

Adam knows exactly what Belle is talking about. They’ve discussed “the look” before. It’s the silent reaction that Belle gets from someone in her new social circle when she says something that the average aristocrat would never say. The sort of perfectly reasonable statements that Adam would have cruelly laughed at before the curse.

Belle continues with a fire in her voice that he loves.

“Is it really so inconceivable that we would think of them as more than servants? I know our guests don’t know everything we’ve been through together, but...”

“It’s not uncommon for people to be close to their staff members, especially those who have been around since their childhood. They serve as playmates, and then as advisers and confidants. Unfortunately, many will never admit it in polite company.”

Belle doesn’t seem comforted by his words, so Adam reaches his arms out again. This time, she sits on his lap and lets him wrap his arms around her. She leans her head against him with a sigh.

“It doesn’t matter what they think, love. We know who our family is.”


	26. Mirror

When Belle takes Adam’s hand and drags him towards the doors of the West Wing to go reunite with the others downstairs, he stops for a minute in front of his old mirror to try to make himself presentable. He had smashed it years ago, but now it is restored along with the rest of the castle.  

He notices right away that there is something very different about his human appearance, compared to before the curse.

His first thought is the most logical explanation. He figures that he has aged. But as he looks more closely at his face and feels the same strength in his body as before, he decides that likely isn’t the case.

What has changed, then? It’s not his baggy, dirty clothing or his tousled hair that is throwing him off. There’s something inherently different.

He combs his fingers through his hair absentmindedly, and Belle giggles as he makes more of a mess. He smiles without thinking about it, still looking in the mirror, and he realizes what the difference is.

He looks happy.


	27. Blue

Shortly after the end of the curse, they begin to invite official visitors to the castle again. There are countless matters to catch up on.

Madame de Garderobe and Plumette insist on immediately curating an appropriate wardrobe for Belle. To Adam’s surprise, she shows an interest in learning about fashion and trying new styles, and while he is glad that she is happy, he finds himself worrying that she will do away with her blue ensemble.

He is slightly embarrassed by how sentimental he has become, but he can’t help but feel an attachment to those particular garments.  He admits as much to Belle one night after he’s had several glasses of wine, and she smiles sweetly at him. The blue dress continues to be a common outfit of hers.

She also finds other ways to take advantage of his confession. On one occasion, when he’s about to leave on a week-long political trip and she’s feeling too poorly to join him, she ties one of her blue hair ribbons around his wrist under his cuff.

He finds that he has a newfound affinity for bright blues in his own wardrobe, as well. He suspects that Belle notices, but she says nothing.  

On their wedding day, he manages to hold himself together until Belle appears in a stunning light blue ball gown.


	28. Arrow

Adam had enjoyed hunting for sport as a young man, but now he can barely stand the sight of a rifle, much less the sound of one. For once, he is glad his rank is high enough that important visitors usually come to him, rather than the other way around. Instead of having to suffer through an outing every time he conducts business, he simply doesn’t offer it as an activity.

The staff insists on keeping most of the castle’s arms supply for protection, considering recent events and the fact that the villagers have regained their bitter memories of their Prince. But they make sure that it is all locked away.

Only Cogsworth has access, so Adam is confused when he walks into the kitchen one morning, looking for Belle, and sees Cuisinier skinning a fresh kill. The man tells him that Belle brought in the animal and returned to the forest.

As Adam steps outside and walks towards the tree line, he tries to figure out what he will say. Perhaps Belle is just used to contributing to the household by hunting. When she moved into the castle permanently and expressed concern about her father being on his own, she had mentioned that she was the one who always managed the chickens and purchased food. It’s not difficult to imagine that she also used other means to make ends meet. If that is the case, he’ll make sure she knows that she should feel no such obligation.

If Belle _wants_ to hunt, for sport or otherwise, he certainly won’t stop her. However, he is a little hurt that she would do so without warning him.

He is too distracted by his thoughts to realize that he probably would have been able to hear the gunshot from the castle, so he is surprised when he spots a flash of blue and sees that his Belle has a different weapon of choice.

Adam stops in his tracks, transfixed by the sight of Belle arching her arm back and concentrating on her target. He looks beyond her and sees that she’s only practicing now. She’s pinned a stretch of dirty fabric to a tree, and there are already several arrows near the center of it.

Not wanting to startle her, he waits silently until she has shot the arrow. This one finds its mark right in the center of the cloth.

He calls out her name as he approaches, and she turns around. Her face is flushed, and she is grinning from ear to ear at her success. She is radiant.

Adam wastes no time in backing her up against the nearest tree and kissing her soundly.


	29. Grass

A few days after the end of the curse, Adam is desperate to have a day alone with Belle. He has the idea of taking her for a walk in the castle gardens, now that everything has thawed.

They wander through hedge mazes and groves. Agathe seems to have left behind much of the whimsical landscaping and other features that had appeared with the curse. Belle is excited to see that there are also fruit trees and berry bushes.

Eventually, they come across the small clearing with the stone bench where Adam had once tried unsuccessfully to hide his choice of reading material from Belle. He starts to lead her towards the bench, but then he notices the smell of the grass. He suddenly remembers all the days he spent as a boy lying in the sunshine while his mother read to him. He realizes that he hasn’t felt the texture of grass in years.

He lets go of Belle’s hand and lies down on the ground on his back. She looks at him curiously, but Adam just smiles. He stretches his arms out to feel the grass against his hands, and he closes his eyes.

A few moments later, he hears Belle walk over and lie down next to him. She smooths her hand over his hair, and then she traces the lines of his face, exploring. He shudders. From the moment the curse broke, she has seemed to understand his need for touch.  

Her warm breath is his only warning when she leans over him for a kiss, which he eagerly accepts. After a wonderful minute, she pulls away. Adam opens his eyes and sees her blushing. She buries her face in his chest, and he wraps an arm around her to pull her close.

They stay in the clearing for most of the day.


	30. Ending

After the curse, the biggest change for Adam is the feeling of satisfaction at the ending of every day.

Before Belle’s arrival, each day had been a hellish blur. On the average day, he stayed awake as long as possible until he passed out. On the worst days, when the only thing keeping him alive was the knowledge that his death would doom everyone else as well, he stayed in his pathetic nest and prayed for unconsciousness to come as soon as possible.

Now, he has purpose. Now, his future stretches out in front of him on a path that he is eager to walk. He lies down not to escape from the world, but to refresh himself so that he is ready for another day. Ending the day means being proud of what he has accomplished, and being proud of how he is building a life with Belle.

Though his dreams are still sometimes filled with pain, and perhaps always will be, he knows that he has nothing to fear when he wakes up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading! I'll be updating my other fic soon!


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